By Chan Hui Mui/Red Sports

Singapore, Sunday, December 12, 2010 — Singapore found themselves drawn into a tough group for the 2011 World Netball Championship scheduled to be held from July 3rd to 10th at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

The president of the International Federation Netball Association (IFNA), Molly Rhone, conducted the draw and 19th-ranked Singapore found itself in Pool C together with Jamaica (world rank 4th), South Africa (6th) and Botswana (18th). There are four pools in total for the championship and the event will see also have Australia, New Zealand, England, Jamaica, Malawi as well as the top two qualifiers from Americas & Caribbean, Asia, Europe and Oceania.

Singapore were hoping to have another Asian country in their pool.

“We prayed for another Asian country as we play against them very often and we know their playing style,” said Singapore’s captain, Lin Qingyi.

“It’s a tough draw. They (both African teams) have tall and athletic players. It will be hard for us to contain their players,” commented Singapore’s coach Kate Carpenter. “Nonetheless, Jamaica will be our strongest opponents. They are very skilful and they are here to contest for the title.”

In order to compete well in this pool, Carpenter felt that Singapore have a lot work to do.

“We will be selecting players for the team (for World Netball Championship) during next year’s Netball Super League. We want players who will be able to be at their peak (in July). We also need to give the players more opportunities to play in tightly contested games so as to train them to have a good performance throughout the game.”

The organisers also recently announced that Mission Foods will be the title sponsor of the championship in a cash sponsorship worth S$450,000.

IFNA president Molly Rhone also commended Singapore on the preparations to date, saying: “Since my visit back in March it is great to see that Singapore has forged ahead with preparations for the Championships and have secured an excellent title sponsor in Mission Foods. Netball is truly growing in stature throughout the world – currently spanning 70 countries – and it is thanks to the efforts of local committees and supporting companies who continue to fuel this growth.”

Over 2,500 Gold and Platinum packages for the tournament have already been snapped up by a majority of overseas visitors. Netball Singapore will launch the sale of Silver and Bronze packages on 1 January 2011, targeted towards the home crowd and Asian neighbours such as Sri Lanka in the coming weeks, but are encouraging locals to buy early to avoid disappointment. The daily tickets will also go on sale in the 2nd quarter of next year.

World Netball Championship Draw
Pool A: Australia, Sri Lanka, Northern Ireland, Samoa
Pool B: New Zealand, Trinidad & Tobago, Fiji, Wales
Pool C: Jamaica, Singapore, South Africa, Botswana
Pool D: England, Malawi, Barbados, Malaysia